Luca Marenzio was the most brilliant representative of the sublime art of the madrigal during the last twenty years of the sixteenth century. Whereas the style of his early works is light, fluid and transparent, in his maturity Marenzio’s language turned towards a more complex, introspective attitude that made him the most emblematic musical exponent of Late Renaissance melancholy. L’amoroso & crudo stile brings together some of Marenzio’s finest madrigals, aiming to reproduce the most intimate expressive facets of a music of extraordinary beauty and profound humanity. With the emotional intensity and deep respect for the poetic text that distinguishes the ensemble, Rosso Porpora begins in this debut recording its personal exploration and celebration of the madrigal, the earliest and still unsurpassed representation of Italian musical identity.
